The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-11-29

W hiahC ouC pOuuu VI "ncdt granny lila
200 pounds of water is required anC
used by the plants for every pound
of straw and grain together. and
that for each pound of mineral plant
food taken up by the wheel CROP
1000 pounds of water are evaporated
through the leaves. Clover and other
broad-leaved plants pass a still larger
quantity of water through their foliage.
This water exists in the soil, not in O
solid state, as in land that is saturated
and filled with it, but it must be in an
active movable condition and so dis
tributed among the fine particles of the
soil and held in suspension by them by
capillary attraction, that air can circu.
late with it and be absorbed by it and
dissolved in it and give vitality to it
When the soil is saturated with water
air is forced out of it and the roots OF
plants become sickly for want of air,
the leaves turn yellow. and unless re-
lieved and air is supplied the plants
speedily die. These facts having been
learned and become known, some
means of freeing the soil from the e1
cess of water were quickly devised
and the practice of drainage was
adopted.
Drainage is effected by means of sur
face channels and pipes laid under the
surface. The former is very inferior
method, because it carries off the water
rs soon as it falls. together with all the
plant food it has gathered in its passage
through the air, and with whatever it
takes up from the surface of the soil as
it rushes over it The water is lost to
the soil. considerable quantity of fer
tility gathered from the atmosphere,
invaluable nitric acid and ammonia is
lost with it. and the soil itself is de-
prived of whatever is soluble and can
be washed away. This kind of drain
age is evidently a very great waste.
and. on the whole, perhaps. leaves the
crop worse off than if there were no
drains and the water was permitted to
percolate slowly through the soil.
Underground drainage, on the other
hand, is not only means of removing
the surplus of water which falls upon
the land. but it brings to the soil and
leaves in it all that is gathered by the
rain in its passage through the air, and
all that is gathered from the air as the
vapors rise from the land and the ocean
and float hither and thither. finally
forming clouds which battle freely in
the atmosphere and absorb all the am
monia which rises from the decaying
matter in the soil or from the myriads
of animals and the vast quantity of fuel
which is consumed upon the earth. as
well as the nitric acid which is formed
SO freely during every thunderstorm by
the action of the lightning upon the
air. All this invaluable plant food,
amounting, rs it is believed, to ten
pounds or more upon every acre Of the
earth's surface. is brought down by the
rain and is carried into the soil, and
the soil seizes upon it and holds it until
the growing crops can make use of it IS
food. The water. also highly charged
with carbonic acid absorbed from the
air. exerts a soluble effect upon the
soil and dissolves various mineral sub
stances which are needed by the crops
and fits them for food for the plants.
The surplus water, indeed. passes
down to the drains, carrying some lit
tie plantfood with it, (but very small
quantity as compared with that which
is carried off by the surface drains).
and escapes to the streams OR its way
to its birthplace, the ocean. 1t may be
that it might be caught and held for
future and other use; but the farmer
has got all he possibly can from it. and
the soil is freed from all injurious eff
fecte by its retention.
In its passage through the soil and
its escape by the drains it (this water)
serves another valuable service. 1t
acts, in fact, as vast air pump. fore
ing out the stagnant, exhausted air
from the soil as it enters, and as it
sinks in the soil and enters the drains
and flows through them it draws in
fresh air loaded with vital energies and
active forces. which exert most ben
e6cial effect upon the land in setting
free for the roots large quantity of
valuable food. Thus, a constant circu-
lation of the life-blood of the soil oc-
ours, vitalizing it and enabling it to
support luxuriant growth where be-
fore there was sterility and barrenness.
the air is breathed in by the
leaves and enables them to perform a
most important function in plant life.
vet we can not doubt that large
quantity of air also enters the plants
by the roots, and that large quantity
of the carbonaceous and perhaps some
of the heterogeneous substances of the
crops are thus derived, and if this is so,
whatever is thus gained is also due in
Il Al